Guest Post by Christina Feindel – Plantain Ice Cream (AIP-Friendly)

Christina Feindel is a veteran food blogger who has successfully used the autoimmune protocol to combat a variety of health problems including Hashimoto’s and Celiac disease. She has volunteered in several autoimmune support groups over the years and has worked as an assistant to Sarah since 2013 (and still has to pinch herself to make sure she isn’t dreaming). She also hosts The Autoimmune Connection, a monthly YouTube show that brings autoimmune patients together to discuss diet, lifestyle, and life with autoimmune disease. Her website, A Clean Plate, offers hundreds of simple autoimmune protocol and Paleo recipes. Christina believes that good, healthy food should be accessible and appealing to anyone on any budget, with any amount of time, and with the bare minimum of ingredients. She also believes that any illness can be improved or even eliminated by starting with a clean plate. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

I love food. But I’ve never really liked cooking.

That’s kind of a strange thing for a food blogger to say, right?

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What fuels my blogging is my quest for good health, and food happens to be a big part of that equation. No matter how much you may hate cooking, I bet you like being sick from eating nutrient-poor foods even less. Still, when you are sick, chopping veggies, standing over a hot stove, cleaning the pans afterward… well, it sounds exhausting. Because everything sounds exhausting. And even now that I’m well, I very much prefer spending my time with friends and family or a good book over spending it in the kitchen scrubbing pans by myself (not that cranking up the tunes and having a kitchen dance party isn’t fun). At the end of the day, I favor recipes that are quick, easy, and inexpensive. Get food, get well, get out of the kitchen. That’s how I roll.

So when it comes to the occasional sweet treat, I am a huge fan of fruit. It’s inexpensive, easy to source, and let’s face it–a large number of us are here because we relied too heavily on baked goods with hard-to-digest flours and added sugars in the past. Pancakes for breakfast. A sandwich for lunch. Pasta for dinner. Brownies for dessert (heck, maybe a few throughout the day too). As someone who has struggled with sugar addiction and sugar-related health problems my entire life, I want to break the hold processed carbs have on the Western psyche. I want to challenge the world to look for simpler, healthier treats. To shrug off the siren call of bagels, cinnamon rolls, cookies, and ice cream with confidence, like distancing yourself from an unhealthy, abusive relationship. You’re better off without him! I believe of every cupcake that crosses my path. Even the AIP-friendly ones.

I assert that fruit is plenty sweet enough on its own to offer us an overwhelming variety of unprocessed, no-sugar-added, whole-foods treats. This recipe is just one example.

As readers of Sarah’s blog, you are no doubt familiar with the magical fruit that is the plantain. They may look like giant bananas, but they are higher in vitamins A, C, B1, and choline, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and selenium. They are also starchier and have some pretty fantastic culinary applications as a result. Sarah’s blog has shown us that you can make muffins, pizza crust, crackers, lasagna, and mash out of them. Bananas can only dream of being so versatile. (Okay, so if you can’t find plantains, you can probably get away with using bananas. But I highly recommend checking your local ethnic markets or farmer’s markets before giving up the search for this wonderful plant.)

In this recipe, I’ve taken advantage of the creamy texture and sugary taste of black plantains to create a fruit-based ice cream that is as creamy as any dairy-based ice cream without any of the processed ingredients or added sugars. This recipe is also highly adaptable. You can add carob powder to taste for a “chocolate” version; use vanilla powder to taste for a vanilla version; puree in other fruits (my favorites are strawberries and cherries); or fold in dried fruit or coconut flakes after the ice cream is made for some added texture. It’s a fantastic way to get rid of any over-ripe plantains you may have lying around!

Prep time: 30 minutes (varies depending on your ice cream maker)

Serves 8-12.

Ingredients

2 ripe plantains (mostly black)

⅓ cup coconut cream (the thick stuff that rises to the top when you refrigerate a can of full-fat coconut milk)

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. You may have to stop and stir the plantains a bit if you are using a blender.

Process through your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Alternatively, freeze until half-frozen (about 30 minutes), then puree in a blender until smooth and freeze again until the consistency of ice cream.

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That depends on how many carbs you do best with on any given day, as plantains are high-starch. The only limitation Sarah imposes is to stay below 20g of total fructose per day. – Christina, Sarah’s assistant

As if I didn’t LOVE you guys enough already!!!!!! I do have a question about plantains that may seem strange though. If I buy green ones from a ‘regular’ grocery store, instead of an ethnic one, they don’t seem to ripen no matter how long I let them sit, they just turn to cement. Is there a trick to it, like putting them in a brown bag or something like that?

Hi. I have Hashimoto’s and I’ve heard that coconut oil is great for hashi’s. On the other side I read ketogenic diets will damage those with autoimmune diseases. But wouldnt the use of coconut oil make my diet ketogenic? I am confused.. Sorry for the dumb question.. I was diagnosed when I was 14 and now that I am in my 20′s Im on a mission to lower my antibodies, TSH and lose the weight Ive gained. If you could give other advices you consider important, please do. Thank you for your time.

I will try 1/2tbsp of coconut oil per day and keep eating a sweet potato everyday. I already eliminated gluten enterely but my antibodies are still in the 400’s and TSH 2.5.. Im think of giving the AIP a try.. Hopefully it will reduce the antibodies and TSH. Are there any cases of women that followed the AIP and seen the antibodies go down to less than 20 and into remission? Thank you for your help

This may be a silly question, but is it possible to use zucchini to make ice cream? When pureed they seem very sticky and gooey and it occured to me they might work mixed with coconut cream for ice cream.

This looks lovely! Will try it over the Christmas holidays when my mom is visiting 🙂 I do have a question about the use of vanilla powder. I have a couple of Paleo recipes calling for vanilla powder that I would also like to try, but I find in searching Sarah’s postings that she always lists vanilla with “if cooked.” I’m thinking this is because vanilla extract contains alcohol which she is advising one to eliminate by cooking. I couldn’t find anything listed about the safety of vanilla powder per se but did find that she lists vanilla under the “best to eliminate initially” list of berries and fruit spices for AIP. So as long as I’m not just starting up AIP, is the raw vanilla powder you suggest (Wilderness Poets Organic Vanilla Powder, Raw) okay on Paleo (Whole30) in general?

I’m making this today for my birthday, with chunks of grain free sunbutter cookie swirled in (I got off the AIP this January, but I’ll always need to keep it low sugar. This is a big treat). Thank you!

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